Leo Apotheker has big plans. HP (relatively) new CEO wants to transform the company, and is willing to break with almost everything his predecessor Mark Hurd set out. How about webOS on every computer shipped by HP?

One, it can be a cold boot of the machine. I frankly don't see that, as no one will use it that way. Not yet at least.

The other way is as a fat layer on top of windows where the webOS apps run like WIndows "Widgets" do now -- a sandbox in their own window.

The 3rd way is running "pure" webOS transparently in a VM with some host integration. This will be nice for developers, as well as users who may want to get more mileage and use out of their webOS apps.

The benefit is that if it doesn't take off, no real harm. I don't think it's going to be a huge engineering effort to pull this off. If it DOES take off, then it instantly expands the penetration of webOS in to the market place.

It won't cede windows (or anything else), especially short term, but it will let folks buy little games and other apps and use them in more places, and make webOS more endearing to its users.